Jim Brown (politician)

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Jim Brown (born July 23, 1943 in Toronto, Ontario) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1995 to 1999.

[edit] Background

Brown was educated at York University and Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree, an MBA, and a diploma in Business Administration. He was the office manager of the Toronto Telegram in 1971, and became a founding member of the Toronto Sun Publishing Co. the same year. He was a lecturer at Ryerson and Seneca Colleges and the University of Toronto from 1971 to 1974, and was later a prominent member of Normandy Manufacturing and Republic Goldfields, Minefinders Corp. He also coached the Toronto Marlborough Girl's Hockey Club, and was president of the Scarborough Girls Hockey League.

Brown first ran for the Ontario legislature in the 1990 provincial election, but finished a distant third in Scarborough West against New Democrat Anne Swarbrick. He ran again in the 1995 election, and defeated Swarbrick by about 2,500 votes amid a provincial victory for the PC victory. For the next four years, he served as a backbench supporter of Mike Harris's government.

During his time in office, Brown was known as one of the more socially conservative members of the PC caucus. He led a movement to ban squeegee kids from the streets of Toronto and attempted to bring forward a private member's bill on abortion. He also attracted controversy by claiming that prostitution rates regularly increased in Toronto during the city's Santa Claus Parade, and emerged as a vocal ally of Toronto's police force. Brown also served as chair of Harris's "Crime Control Commission" for a time, though his views on "law and order" issues were considered extreme by many.

In 1996, the Harris government reduced the number of provincial ridings from 130 to 103. This change forced a number of sitting MPPs to face one another in the 1999 provincial election. Brown ran against Liberal incumbent Gerry Phillips in the new riding of Scarborough—Agincourt, and lost by about 3,000 votes. (Interestingly, the Toronto Sun tabloid, right-wing and Brown's former employer, supported Phillips in this contest.) After the election, Brown was appointed to the Ontario Rental Housing Tribunal; he has since left the Tribunal for medical reasons.